Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks

The Tiexi district of Shenyang was once the pride of Chinese industry: hundreds of thousands of workers, enormous factories, and an order with its own neighbourhoods, its own hospitals and its own schools. At the end of the 1990s the factories began to close. This documentary records that closing from inside: the last shifts, the emptied workshops, the demolished housing, and families who do not know where to go. Wang Bing shot the film alone on a handheld video camera between 1999 and 2001. It runs over nine hours and is divided into three parts: Rust, Remnants and Rails. The first is inside the factories, the second in the workers' district, the third on the railway that connects the plants. The narrative offers no comment; there is no narration, no interview, no music. The camera simply waits and records. Who it's for: Anyone interested in observational documentary, recent Chinese history, and long-duration cinema. Who it's not for: Nine hours is very long and the pace is deliberately heavy. The image quality is also that of a video camera of its time.